The relationship between power and violence through the eyes of an artist:

Sal and the 120 days of Sodom A movie by Pier Paolo Pasolini

1. Introduction: A film which aim for the body and for the head. A scalpel shoot, sharp, thin, glacial. A hemorrhage which propagates from the eyes, spreads trough the stomach and finally hits your brain. Later physical disquiet, nausea, cold sweat, repulsion. A physical and then a psychological shock. Thats the simple description of my reaction to the screening of the film. Still banned in several countries, Sal is not only Pasolinis most controversial work but one of the most striking films ever made. Furthermore, to raise the scandal around it, a short time after the release of Sal, Pasolini was found dead, in still unclear circumstances, in Ostia, a squalid suburb of Rome. Sal its his tragic swan song1. 2. Sadism as Fascism: The film is based on De Sades novelthe 120 days of Sodom2 .The book is about four libertines detaining several slaves for four months in a castle, in order to experience their sexual pleasures .As a starting point, Pasolini observed that these characters are clearly SS men in civilian dress (which) considered their victims objects and destroyed automatically all possibility of human relationship with them. Hence, sadism is for him a form of sexual expression of a will of dominance; in other words, a relationship between exploiter and exploited. Sex and violence (physical but more importantly psychological) are both coessential elements in it. Clearly, the abuse is always associated with situations of power imbalance. It is exactly in the use of violence to prevail that Pasolini individuates the common denominator between sadism and fascism. This similarity is the ideological basis of the film because fascism represents a symbol of all the powers which use the law of the strongest. 3. The hell As written by Sam Rohdie in his essay 3, in Pasolini s films citations are structured as analogies between the low in everyday life and the high and sacred, either pictorial or from music and literature. In Sal, Pasolini uses them as a weapon to attack fascism, to highlight the manias, the dysfunctions of the bourgeois and to criticize the consumerism society. To support the ideal connection between sadism and fascism, the Italian artist recalls an idea that
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As observed: the line between art and death seemed to dissolve Sal: Breaking the Rules By Naomi Greene http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/511-salo-breaking-the-rules 2 Pasolini on de Sade: An Interview during the Filming of "The 120 Days of Sodom" Gideon Bachmann 3 Sal: A Cinema of Poetry http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/512-salo-a-cinema-of-poetry

certainly De Sade had in mind4: Dantes inferno. In fact, Pasolinis inferno mimics the structure of Dantes one. A lager where neither salvation nor hope is possible, which recall the dantesque motto "abandon hope, all who enter here"5 .The film is divided in four parts where are inflicted to the victims increasingly heavier torments; the antechambers of hell6 , the circle of madness, the circle of shit and the circle of blood. The devils are, in this case, four gentlemen who clearly represent the institution of bourgeois powers: the duke, the magistrate, the bishop and the president. Sal7 , as well, is an evocative place; the Italian Social Republic, better known as Sal Republic, was a marionette government formally controlled by Mussolini but de facto under the thumb of Nazi armies. A sort of dead body kept alive by Hitlers will, a fascist government without any kind of popular legitimacy. This was Pasolinis idea of hell on Earth: the perfect location for four corrupted fascists and their criminal plans: using innocents to satisfy their basest desires. 3. The Guerrilla Poet Above all, Pasolini considered himself a poet. As a consequence, every single word of the dialogues assumes primarily relevance. By means of the characters, their snotty speeches, their impeccable dress, their conformism manners, he denounces the bourgeoisies, a certain kind of philosophy, the Church, the State. Emblematic is the conversation between the four drunken men in the room adorned with futurism portraits8. Their philosophical speculations are non-sense, empty, out of the context. Pasolinis attack of the accomplished cultural established is here frontal, direct and incontrovertible. Whereas the duke quotes Nietzsche, Pasolini criticizes two French philosophers (Klossowki and Blanchot) and their concept of God9 He believes that the first duty of an intellectual is exerting a critical analysis of the real events. A critic abstract, which lacks in rationality, turns out to be fanaticism. He used to say that the real Marxist must not be a good Marxist. His function is to put orthodoxy and codified certainties into crisis. His duty is to break the rules. Intellectuals, and generally, culture should be active and without concessions. Pasolini, connoisseur of the work of Marx and Freud, is from this point of view, conceptually close to the School Of Frankfurt. For example, he believes, as Adorno affirms in Negative Dialectics10 that nothing is innocuous. As written by Kris Ravetto he (Pasolini) emulates Adornos distrust of speculative discourses. With Walter Benjamin he shares the same strategy because to struggle against fascism we must realize we live in a real state of emergency11. 4. A world of craziness, death andshit
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Pasolini on de Sade: An Interview during the Filming of "The 120 Days of Sodom" Gideon Bachmann What the sadists in the camps told their victims: tomorrow you will be smoke rising from these chimneys into the sky Theodor Adorno Negative Dialectics Part III. Models. Meditations on Metaphysics 6 Dantes limbo 7 8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sal_Republic 9In the editore Garzantisame scene there is an artwork as objects are just another form of Gods ondi Pier Paolo model is All these Nitzshean supermen in using of Picasso. Picasso Le ceneri Di Gramsci Earth. Their Pasolini always God. In Negating him they accept his existence Pasolini on de Sade: An Interview during the Filming of "The 120 Days of Sodom" Gideon Bachmann 10 Theodor Adorno Negative Dialectics dying today pages 361-366
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Theses on the Philosophy of History"(1941)Walter Benjamin

As I read in an anonymous and intelligent review everything in the film is not casual12 and allegoric. For example, the name Sodom is the symbol of a city (society) corrupted by sins and vices, hence the symbol of the decadence of the modern society. The sexual exploitation is the main thematic of the circle of madness. Because of these explicit sexual contents the film was (and it is still) banned in several countries and classified as pornography13. However, even if I dont like to put things in a box, I would rather accept the definition of Sal as an anti-pornographic14 movie. In fact, the homosexual scenes are cold; there is no sign of eroticism, intimacy, physical pleasure. Sexuality in which totally lacks the sense of joy that is expressed in the previous Pasolinis works, notoriously known as the trilogy of life15. This is explained by the fact that the homosexuality 16 was for him a sort of rebellion against the conformist sexual tolerance of Italian society (as filmed in his documentary Comizi DAmore17 which explores the sexual education of Italians). A realm where the homosexual sex is imposed as norm (Sal), with a sort of dantesque contrappasso, represents for him the death, the absolute evil. Putting it in Freudian terms, whereas sex in the trilogy of life is the expression of the life instinct (Eros), Sal is the expression of the death drive (Thanatos). The coprophagy (the circle of shit) scenes are probably the most sick and disturbing ever shown on a mainstream film. To explain these scenes Pasolini (probably worried about 1970's "fast food" culture) says that they represent the industrial food producers (who) force to consumers to eat excrement. Or more ironically Pasolini means that the consumerism society is obsessed with the accumulation of money (shit) which is the result of the surplus value (of the body work).

5. The exception becomes the rule Pasolini himself describe his last work as a Mad dream. A dream which is an exasperated and though prophetic collage of dystopian elements perceptible in contemporary society. However, despite all the brutality and all the bestiality contents, the movie is elegant, solemn, surrounded by an aura of perfection that conveys a strong sense of alienation. Alienation consequences of a kingdom of overemphasizing order, discipline, rituality. An absolute homologation18 where
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http://www.amazon.com/Salo-Criterion-Collection-Paolo-Bonacelli/dp/1559408855 Here is how the Censorship Board described the reasons for the ban in their 1992 to 1993 Annual Report in Australia The majority considered a combination of visual and conceptual elements to be indecent. It thought that the reasonable adult person would find the film's intellectual thesis neither clear nor compelling and would therefore, be more inclined to perceive the general character of this version of the film in pornographic, voyeuristic and exploitative terms. For the full text http://www.refusedclassification.com/censorship/films/salo-or-the-120-days-of-sodom-1975-1.html 14 Sal: Fade to black by Mark Kermode (2001) 15 Boccaccio's Decameron (1971), Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1972), Il fiore delle mille e una note (literally The Flower of 1001 Nights, released in English as Arabian Nights, 1974). 16 During the years in Casarsa (a small village in Friuli region, Italy) he was expelled by the Communist Party for his homosexuality, and consequently lost the job as a teacher. 17 Love Meetings Pier Paolo Pasolini( 1964) Documentary about the sexual education of the Italians 18 in the technical sense of the word from the Greek homologeo () for "to agree", which is generally used in to signify the granting of approval by an official authority

reality and imaginary are totally overturn. A state of emergency 19(Benjamin) where the exception becomes the rule. What is allowed is arbitrary nevertheless real (for example the homosexual sex). Real because imposed from the above, from the human will. Laws, as far as abominable, created by human beings (beasts) for human beings (victims). Again real, because Pasolini introduces elements familiar for the viewers. For instance, apparently the four characters act like well respected men. Transposing them in our society, they could be bankers, businessmen, politicians. What is the consequence of it? Does Pasolini believe fascism is everywhere? 6. The seismograph: Lettere Luterane and Scritti Corsari Clearly, the answer is negative if we consider the traditional meaning of the term "fascism20. However, Pasolini was particularly concerned about the sudden economical and cultural changing that the Italian society was living during the sixties and the seventies. The years of the Italian economic miracle, of the shift from a poor, mainly rural nation into an industrial power. In this historical context, Pasolini was, as stated in a particularly clever definition, as a seismograph 21, as an observer of superficial events (in Marxs term superstructure 22)which are the results of deeply and epochal base changing. Thanks to his artistic sensitivity, he perceives, re-elaborates and records every single movement, every single signal of modification of the language (Gramsci), behaviors even in the physiognomy of the Italians. Recognized as one amongst the most prominent intellectuals of the Italian intelligenzija, he writes articles and essays in various magazines and newspapers. His opinions are often highly controversial and fiercely debated, but always constructive and above all independent. He argues against the Christian Democracy23, the Pope, the Communist Party, the 1968 students movement. These reflections, which can be considered Pasolinis testament, will be subsequently collected in two books:Scritti Corsari and Lettere Luterane.24 7. Old and New Fascism The difference between traditional fascism and new fascism is explained in a famous essay (dont be afraid to have a heart) published in 1975 on Italy's most renowned newspaper, Il Corriere Della Sera. Pasolini writes: In a society where everything is forbidden, one can do everything: in a society where something is permitted, one can only do that something.25 This means that, in the traditional form of fascism, there is a displacement of powers which allowed
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Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History," (Spring, 1940) Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. It advocates the creation of a totalitarian single-party state that seeks the mass mobilization of a nation through discipline, indoctrination, physical education, and family policy. This state is led by a supreme leader who exercises a dictatorship over the fascist movement, the government and other state institutions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism 21 L'eros pedagogico non ancora colonizzato dal potere Raffaele Mantegazza http://www.raffaelemantegazza.com/ 22 A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy Karl Marx (1859): 23 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democracy_(Italy) 24 Letters, 1940-54, 1986 Pier Paolo Pasolini Ed. Garzanti 25 In una societ dove tutto proibito, si pu fare tutto: in una societ dove permesso qualcosa si pu fare solo quel qualcosa (Pier Paolo Pasolini.)

the repressive use of violence by any means. Quoting the Duke again: We Fascists are the only true Anarchists, naturally, once we're masters of the state. In fact, the one true Anarchy is that of power!26 . Differently, the new form of fascism, the consumerism, concedes to the individual only to be object/consumer, according to the rules that the market imposes. Whoever does not conform to the rule of the market is not tolerate. Permissiveness which reveals itself to be firstly intolerance, then exclusion and finally suppression. In other words Pasolini affirms that consumerism is another form of totalitarian power, which actuates a cultural genocide (Marx) reducing the individual to a unique model of fetish-worshipper. Hence, as written by Kriss Ravetto the fascist has changed his point of reference, from the mythic superman (Maciste, Mussolini) to the bourgeois Everyman (the individualist, the libertine)27. 8. The cultural genocide In The fireflies article28, Pasolini uses the imagery of the loss of the fireflies in the countries to describe more specifically the shift from the fascism of the Christian Democratic Party to the fascism of the consumerism society. He divides this passage in three moments; before the loss of the fireflies, during the loss of the fireflies and finally after the loss of the fireflies. In the first period, the continuity between the traditional fascism (Mussolini) and the Christian Democratic Party was complete. In fact, both regimes shared the same empty values of church, family, nation, obedience, discipline, order, savings and morality29. Substantially, the formal democratic mask hide a concrete fascist government. During the loss of the fireflies no one was been able to understand what was happening, neither the politicians nor the cultural establishment. Traditional values had suddenly become old, outdated, replaced by the hedonistic and individualist values of the consumerism society. At the end of this period, after the loss of the fireflies, the Italian society was completely changed. Pasolini says that this destruction of values implies primarily two consequences of political and sociological nature. The former is the substantial power vacuum caused by the irrefutably downward parabola of the political power of the Christian Democratic (and the Vatican State), which based its consensus on the catholic faithful flock .Christian Democratic and Vatican both now powerless in front of the (Americans style) laicism of the Italians. The latter is what Pasolini calls the cultural genocide30. In fact, the loss of these insects would represent the genocide of the entire (sub)proletariat by the bourgeoisie31. 9. Revolutionary borgate
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Noi fascisti siamo i soli veri anarchici. Naturalmente una volta conquistato il potere.Infatti la sola vera anarchia quella del poter dialogue extracted from Salo e le 120 giornate di Sodoma 27 The unmaking of fascist aesthetics Kriss Ravetto Univ. Of Minnesota Press 28 Larticolo delle lucciole Pier Paolo Pasolini Scritti Corsari Ed. Garzanti 29 Conceiving life: reproductive politics and the law in contemporary Italy Patrick Hanafin Ashgate Publishing, Ltd
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Il genocidio Pier Paolo Pasolini Scritti Corsari Garzanti Editore Come le lucciole". Una politica della sopravvivenza Georges Didi-Huberman - Bollati Boringhieri 2010

Pasolini dedicated a great deal of his artistic research to the observation of the sub-proletarians. His first films, Accattone (1961) and Mamma Roma (1962) were set in Romes marginal suburbs (borgate32) and depicted the everyday life of the marginalized people. A third world33 just around the corner of Italys biggest city and capital. Hence, he felt particularly attracted by this distinctive world, which was so far and so close to the urbanized cities. A peculiar society, impermeable to the rules of the bourgeoisie, with its own rules, traditions and culture. The land of the exploited and the persecuted [....]which exists outside the democratic process [....].Thus their opposition is revolutionary even if their consciousness is not34 .Pasolini follows carefully this world, poor but pure, fading away, and with it all its archaic deeds, its dialects, its laws which lasted from the depths of time. A loss of an entire culture in the name of the economic development. Quoting Theodor Adorno again, a genocide in the name of the cultural integration35. 10. Old and New Violence If the old traditional fascism was violent, sadistic (as the personages of Sal) and easily recognizable, the new fascism has developed a new strategy, more pervasive and underhanded. In an essay with an emblematic title The genocide, Pasolini explains how this rapid substitution of values has been possible. In fact, the economical Italian miracle is the results of two technological revolutions: the transport and the communications revolution. New motorways, massive infrastructural investment and affordable cars have eased, for the first time, the connection between the peripheries and to the urban centers (urbanization). In other words Pasolini was observing, in a smaller scale, a phenomenon that only twenty years later would be called globalization. On the other hand the mass media, particularly the television (Guy Debord), has settled new cultural lifestyles. Pasolini explains the central role of it in this process in another essay titled Acculturation and acculturation 36 .Firstly the television has promised (lying), with unceasing advertisement campaigns37, the salvation from the plague of the poverty. Subsequently it has promoted new models of behavior based on the ostentation of the richness and the research of the wild luxury. Objects have become a status symbol to have at all costs. Secondly, the imposition of new commercial values has followed the imposition of new sexual values. We know, sex has got its appeal, particularly on a population oppressed since centuries by the bigotry of the Catholic Church. Thirdly the changing of language. Every hegemonic social class (Antonio Gramsci) uses the voice of the mass media to reinforce its power. The television has not only become a new instrument of propaganda in the hand of the political power, but even worse an instrument to whom has been entrusted the cultural
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The term borgate does not have an exact equivalent in English. Dictionary translations usually offer something to the effect of working class suburbs. The term, pejoratively derived from the word borgo, which simply means district or neighborhood John David Rhodes (Stupendous miserable Pasolinis city Rome) 33 Pasolini interviewed by Ninetto Davoli http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD202ByN76c 34 One dimensional man Herbert Marcuse (1964) Routledge & Kegan Paul 35 Negative Dialectics Part III. Models. Meditations on Metaphysics Theodor Adorno 36 Acculturazione e acculturazione Pier Paolo Pasolini Scritti Corsari 1975 Garzanti editore 37 Carosello was a sort of advertisement which has entered in the Italian popular tradition

instances of an entire country. In fact it has imposed the use of a static, idiot and business style language. As a consequence, the Italian language, that was before like a river uninterruptedly revitalized by the innovative strength of the regional dialects, has now become a dry rivulet. 11. Conclusion; Do we still want to dance? This final analysis brings me to make two conclusions; one general on the concept of violence, and another one, very personal, on the reason why Ive chosen Pasolini as object of my research. With regards to the concept of violence it must be observed that the consumerism society and its uncontrolled individualism have promoted a social model highly unfair and iniquitous. It is not rhetorical saying that inequality and violence go hand in hand. A society where the money are the only yardstick of the individual value, where the richness is in the hands of the few and where people are kept uninterruptedly in need. As a consequence, quoting Pasolini again, we have all become little Hitler power seeker, one against another. The psychological violence with which this model of behavior is imposed is almost on a daily basis. The result of it (as happened last summer in London with the riots) is a society on the verge of a nervous breakdown, which expresses this frustration often with (seemingly) inexplicable violent actions. Violence which is in turn repressed by the forces of policy again with force, completing in this way a mad vicious circle. To do not mention what, in the name of freedom, the new capitalism is able to do to conquer new markets (Iraq, Afghanistan etc) The last reflection regards Pasolinis prophetic analysis which explains clearly whats happened in Italy in the last 30 years. The vacuum of political power perceived by Pasolini has, in fact, been filled by a lively symbol of the mythological self made man of American inspiration. Berlusconi (yes I know an obsession), his televisions, the show business (as Debord predicted38) have created a perfect (and fake) dream machine. The story is well known and the consequences of it are in front of us. The awakening has been rude and the result it is again the frustration of an entire (culpable) nation. However, I decided to explore Pasolinis poetry because he represents a unique example of criticism, independence of though and anti-conformism, a headlight which indicates the right road to follow. Thats why I conclude my essay recalling the last scene of Sal; after all this violence and bullshit do we still want to dance?

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La Socit du spectacle Guy Debord, Editions Champ Libre, 1971

Bibliography
(Pasolini, Accattone!, 1961) film
Pasolini's first film as director. Accattone means beggar and it settled in Romes suburbs. It is he cinematographic transposition his novels Boys of Life and A Violent Life. For its content it was brought near to the Italian neorealism of Vittorio De Sica and Luchino Visconti.

(Pasolini, Mamma Roma, 1962) film

Mamma Roma is a name of an middle-aged ex prostitute who(Anna Magnani), tries to have her second chance selling vegetables.It is from a technical point of view, Pasolinis most innovative film. The film was fiercely critized and during the film's premiere Pasolini was attacked by fascists.

(Pasolini, The Decameron, 1971) film

It is the first movie of Pasolini's Trilogy of life, and is based on the novel Decamerone by Giovanni Boccaccio.

(Pasolini, The Canterbury Tales, 1972) film

It is the adaptation of the medieval narrative poem The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

(Pasolini, A Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), 1974) film

The story erotic travel of an innocent young man Nur-e-Din to search for a girl who was once his slave girl . The Screenplay was written in collaboration with the Italian writer Dacia Maraini.

(Pasolini, Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, 1975) film

(Pasolini, Love Meetings , 1964) Documentary

A documentary which exploires Italian thoughts on argument such as on topics such as virginity, prostitution, homosexuality .

(Pasolini, Lettere Luterane, 1976) Collection of essays

Collection of thougths, essays, letters on variours argument which generated public polemics with controversial analyses of public affairs.

(Pasolini, Scritti Corsari, 1975) Collection of essays

As above

(Pasolini, Le ceneri di Gramsci, 1957) Collection of Poems (Pasolini on de Sade: An Interview during the Filming of "The 120 Days of Sodom" Universiity of California Press)interview (Sal: A Cinema of Poetry By Sam Rohdie) essay
http://www.criterion.com/films/532-salo-or-the-120-days-of-sodom website Sam Rohdie is Professor of Film Studies at Queen's University Belfast. He wrote ibooks on Pasolini and Antonioni. His essay analyzes the language,the symbols, the temporal structure and the sources used by Pasolini in Sal.

(Sal: The Written Movie By Gary Indiana) essay

http://www.criterion.com/films/532-salo-or-the-120-days-of-sodom website

Gary Indiana is an American writer, filmmaker, and visual artist. He is professor of philosophy and literature at the New School in New York City. His essay analyzes the dialoques, the

narrative and Pasolinis bibliography from an interesting point of view

(Sal: I, Monster By Catherine Breillat) essay

http://www.criterion.com/films/532-salo-or-the-120-days-of-sodom website Catherine Breillat is a French filmmaker, novelist. Her essay is very interesting because explores Sal from a bodily prospective. Her work has been associated with the Cinma du corps/Cinema of the Body

(Sal: Breaking the Rules By Naomi Greene) essay

http://www.criterion.com/films/532-salo-or-the-120-days-of-sodom website She presents Pasolini's film in a critical context tracing the evolution of his ideas and the details of his controversial life

(Sal: The Present as Hell By Roberto Chiesi) essay

http://www.criterion.com/films/532-salo-or-the-120-days-of-sodom website
He is a cinematograhical critic and curator of Archivio Pasolini della Cineteca di Bologna

(Sal By John Powers)essay

http://www.criterion.com/films/532-salo-or-the-120-days-of-sodom website John Powers is an American novelist and playwright. Powers has written successful books of fiction

(http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/salo/)website (Unmaking of Fascist Aesthetics By Kris Ravetto Univ Of Minnesota Press) Book
Kriss Ravetto teaches film history, criticism, philosophy, media, and gender studies in the Department of Critical Studies at California Institute of the Arts. Her book analyzes from different prospective (history, philosophy, critical theory art) fascism and its estetique.

(One-Dimensional Man: Herbert Marcuse) (Society of the Spectacle Guy Debord 1967) ( Negative Dialectics Part III. Models. Meditations on Metaphysics Theodor Adorno) (http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-gram.htm) website on Antonio Gramsci (http://www.wbenjamin.org/walterbenjamin.html) website on Walter Benjamin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBazR59SZXk&feature=relmfu Reading Marxs Capital with David Harvey website